Max Verstappen crashed out of the British Grand Prix following a collision with Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton dived down Verstappen’s inside on the entry to Copse at 180mph on the opening lap, with the Mercedes driver tagging the rear of his rival’s Red Bull.
Verstappen was sent out of control and crashed into the wall, and was winded in the high-speed accident, while Hamilton was given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.
“Is Max OK?” said Hamilton over the radio. “He is out of the car,” Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington replied.
“I was ahead going in there,” said Hamilton. “I was fully inside, it was my line, and he turned in on me.”
Verstappen, 23, remained in his cockpit for several moments before emerging but appeared wounded and was taken away in an ambulance.
Red Bull said Verstappen had been “taken to a local hospital for further precautionary tests” after being assessed at the track’s medical centre.
Verstappen’s team principal Christian Horner put the blame firmly on Hamilton for the collision.
He said: “Max had a 51G accident. He is in the medical centre but he walked in there on his own and did a 30-minute precautionary check.
“For me it is very clear, Lewis has stuck a wheel on one of the fastest corners of the championship.
“He has driven here for years. You know that you don’t do that. Thank God we have not had a driver seriously injured or worse here today.”
The race was red-flagged following serious damage to the barriers on the exit of Copse.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc assumed the lead of the race with Hamilton, having sustained damage to the front-left of his car, in second and Valtteri Bottas third in the other Mercedes.
Back in the Mercedes garage, Hamilton watched a replay of the incident and shook his head.
Horner took aim at Hamilton’s driving in a radio message to FIA race director, Michael Masi.
“In that corner, he was never anywhere near alongside,” said a furious Horner. “Every driver that has driven this circuit knows that you do not stick a wheel on the inside of Copse. That is an enormous accident.
“And it was 100 per cent Max’s corner. As far as I am concerned, the full blame is on Hamilton who should never have been in that position.
“You could have had a massive accident. Thank God he walked away unscathed, so I hope you are going to deal with it appropriately.”
Hamilton’s Mercedes boss Toto Wolff then got in on the action with Masi.
The Austrian said: “Michael I have just sent you an email with the diagram with where the cars should be, did you receive it?”
Masi replied: “Toto, I don’t access my emails during the race deliberately so I can concentrate on the race.”
Wolff said: “Well, maybe you should look at this because there is something in the rules that is coming up.”
Masi then told Wolff to take his concerns up with the stewards.
The race resumed after a delay of 45 minutes.
